That damn question again "How do I make a cut scene?" but with moved NPCs.

[Thow]

First off, I am a total noob, this is my first time with RPG Maker VX (And any RPG Maker!), so I'm learning by a lot of trial and error, and especially using the "What's this?" function. So please use as simple as possible language, and even pictures would be a great help x_x!


Okay so, I have an Inn where there are a bunch of NPCs in it, just hanging out. One NPC is wanting me to do a fetch quest for food ingredients, once it's completed, it asks if I would like to eat, if I say yes, the screen fades to black, and when it comes back, new music is supposed to be playing, all the NPCs are supposed to be gone, and the area is supposed to look smokey, like a fire is going on. (whew, long sentence)

So, my problem is... I have no idea how to make the part where after it fades to black happen! My idea is that I want all of the NPCs to be moved to a Church building I created during that fade to black. Also, when the player walks out of the inn, I want the area to have that red firey glow over the screen, but again.. I have no idea how to make that happen.

Please, any help is greatly appreciated, and also... I have no idea how to properly use "variables" "common events" or "switches" so far, I've only figured out how to use Self Switches, so please explain in detail.  Thanks a ton

 

[Stardust]

OK, here's what you do.

Tab 2, under Screen Effects, the first two commands are Fadeout screen and Fadein screen.  To make the screen go black, use Fadeout screen.

Tab 1, under Game Progression, use Control switches . . .  Switches work the same as self switches, but they can affect multiple events.  So, create a switch and turn it on. 

Then, create a new event page (to the right of the event name) for each of the characters in the inn that you want to disappear.  In the second page, under Conditions, check Switch, then set it to the switch you just turned on.  Don't set a graphic or anything for this event page - this will make it appear that they "disappeared".

For the smokey effect, you'll have to play around with the Tint screen . . . option under tab 2, Screen Effects.  To make it "firey", you should raise the bar for red slightly until you find the desired effect.

To change the music, go under tab 2, Music and Sounds, Play BGM . . .

Under tab 2, under Timing, use the Wait . . . command and set it to the number of seconds you want the screen to remain dark.  60 frames = 1 second, so if you want 2 seconds, you'll have to use 120 frames, for 3 it would be 180 frames, etc.

If you want the screen to change back from the firey look when the player exits, use the Tint screen . . . again on the transfer event.  You don't need to change anything from the default to get it back to normal, so just hit OK.

In the church, create the events with a blank first event page.  On a new event page, set the Condition to the switch you turned on, set the graphics for the characters, and put in any text, etc.

I hope that helps.  If you need a further explanation, just tell me what you don't understand.

~Guardian1239

 

[Thow]

Alright, I understand what to do, but I just don't know where to put these events now. Also, when I create the events in the church, do I create 1 event block for each person, and put the graphic in as their character?

 

[Stardust]

The event that controls the screen, switch, etc. should be after the quest is completed in that character's event.  When creating the events for the characters in the church, you'd create 1 event for each person, like was done in the inn, but the first page would be blank (no graphics) and the second page (after the switch is turned on) contains the graphic.

~Guardian1239

 

[Thow]

Okay, I have all that down and I think I'm about ready to go... now one last thing. With the fade out screen, it won't fade back in.

I have this
When[Yes]
@> Play Sound
@>Fadeout Screen
@>Wait: 60 Frames
@>Control Self Switch D=ON

So then on the next event tab, the self switch is on D, then this
@>Wait 60 frames
@fadein Screen
@Transfer Player [To the place]
@>Play BGM
@> Tint SCreen
@> Control Switches [0001: Move Chars to Church]

So why won't the screen re-open?

 

[Stardust]

You don't really need the self switch in there.  I have a feeling you forgot to make the second event page autorun, though.

~Guardian1239

 

[Thow]

Okay, to save us both this trouble... could you just tell me what I'm doing wrong. The first set of images are the Quest NPC and the second one is a random NPC in the Inn that I want moved to the church.

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8537/sally1dp7.jpg
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/4636/sally2zb8.jpg
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/9956/sally3vv4.jpg
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/5940/sally4uj6.jpg
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/7854/sally5el8.jpg
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/1816/sally6mm8.jpg

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/5806/npc1uu0.jpg
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/1642/npc2bo4.jpg

 

[Stardust]

OK, here's what I see wrong:

I'm assuming you want the second tab to transition into the third one.  To do this effectively, the third event page must be set on autorun, but it would be easier just to combine the two tabs.

On event page 5, you need to uncheck the two switches and just leave the self switch check.  You're telling it that both of those switches have to be on for it to play that event page, but neither are activated yet.

You don't need the switch "Sally Appears Again".  You should just get rid of it.

For the second page of Ken, you shouldn't have any operations under event commands.  When you create an event in the church, you'd basically flip the event pages (make event page 2 event page 1, vise versa), but event page 2 would still have the switch activation and the first wouldn't.

Just a note about event pages: They progress in the order they're presented.  In other words, if you create an event that moves to the second page when a switch and a self switch are needed, it won't go back to the first event page unless both are off.

I hope I'm not being too confusing.  I'm feeding you a lot of information.

~Guardian1239

 

[Thow]

Alright... after a lot of reworking, I got it to work, sort of anyway. Okay now to something else, I think I can figure out how to get NPCs to spawn now, but how do I get the music to play throughout the whole map instead of just the Inn?

 

[Thow]

Oh also... when I create new equipment/monsters, they don't show up as usable? Like, I created a new helmet that there's only 1 in the game, but when I can't put it with my starting equipment, or if I put it in a chest, it cannot be equipped. And now I created a monster, but I can't put it into a battle processing event.

 

[Stardust]

When creating a class, you'll notice that there's a list of equipment.  Anything that's checked can be equipped, everything else isn't available to that character.  You just need to find the armor you made in the class listing for the character and check it.

Enemies need to be combined into troops.  In other words, enemies are created, but they can't be battled unless they're part of a troop.  Of course, a troop can consist of only 1 monster.

~Guardian1239

 

[Thow]

!!! Amazing, thank you so much Guardian, you have helped me so much and I'm really grateful.

Just could you answer my music question? How do I get the music to play outside of the Inn after I exit it, where would I put the event trigger for it? Also, I want to have the same music playing throughout the whole village, even in the buildings, up until my switch for after the whole scene is over.

I hope I worded that well enough O_o

Oh, and one one last thing (I hope) is there any easy way to make all the stats throughout the game be low? Like, I don't want my characters at lvl 50 to have like 5000 HP, instead like 400 or something. Like a Paper Mario game, that kind of stat system. Would I just manually have to change everything? Or is there a nicer, more thorough way of doing it?

 

[Stardust]

You can create a common event with the trigger Parallel Process and the switch set to the switch that's activated after the scene.  Set the event commands to Play BGM . . . and select what you want.  This will make this BGM play until the switch is turned off.  If you turn the switch off after the entire episode (after character goes to the church, etc.), all the characters in the church and inn will go back to their previous states, I believe, and you can always create another switch to proceed with the storyline.

~Guardian1239

 

[regi]

Just a comment on your events, I'm sure you understand everything already from Guardian, but you might want to use less self-switches.

For example, after you give the milk, firewood, and herbs to Sally, don't turn on self-switch B, but immediately have the text "Hey, this is great, thanks!" Otherwise, you will have to talk to her yet again after giving the items for her to continue the message.

 

[Thow]

Alright, I have everything pretty much figured out, but I just can't think of a way for after the scene, when I turn off the BGM, like you said, everyone resets back to their old place. What should I do to make that not happen, but still turn off the BGM?

And to Regimos, yeah haha, I figured that out now, I'm using them less and less, it was just at the time, that's all I knew how to use.



UPDATE: I'm thinking that with the NPC instead of making a tab for this http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/7854/sally5el8.jpg I can stick all that in a Call Common Event, but I'm stuck on how I would still make that work, then be able to turn it off along with the BGM AAAAAAAAAND not let everyone get thrown back to their original spots. Am I at least making progress here ?

 

[Stardust]

You're getting better.  What you can do is make another switch after the entire scenario, then create a third event page for everyone when that switch is activated.

There's a command, Tab 1, under Flow control, called Call common event . . .  You can just set the trigger of the common event to none and use this command and it won't require any switches to activate.

~Guardian1239

 

[Thow]

Ah! Awesome! Yeah, I can totally see how that will work.

Guardian, you are the man. Thanks so much for helping me out and sticking with me through out the whole thing. Seriously, I would have never figured any of this out on my own.

I think I'm good to go from here on out, but if I have any more trouble, I hope you wouldn't mind me sending you a PM or two